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It’s like when I first dated my husband back in the day. All day long my thoughts were consumed with him, and every moment that I wasn’t with him seemed wasted. I thought about him nonstop, and just looking at him made my knees weak and my pulse race.

Now I have those same “newly dating” feelings again…with my manuscript. One of the tasks in chapter 2 of Julia Cameron’s Walking in this World ask questions related to what you would do if you had unlimited funds and unlimited time. Well, I don’t have either – not by a long shot. I have a great part-time job and three kids that keep me very busy, especially considering one is a toddler. In the past I have said I’m “too busy” to write, to pursue my dream of becoming a writer. In fact, the last book took years to complete. But suddenly, I’m finding myself “dating” my manuscript. I started writing this book just over a month ago and almost sixty thousand words later, am still going strong. I don’t have the time, but I’m finding the time. Any chance I get – whether it’s at night when the kids go to sleep, during my baby’s nap, in the car (not as driver, obviously) – I’m writing. So while it would be very nice to have unlimited funds and unlimited time, I’m not letting that stop me from pursuing my passion for writing.

And to my husband – I continue to have those same feelings for you today as well. Thank you for your patience as I disappear most nights with laptop in hand. One day soon you’ll have me back…

4 Responses to “Dating My Manuscript”

I’m so glad you finally shared your secret passion with the world – I was tired of hearing about it – haha! Just kidding. I’m so proud of you – I can’t believe how many pages you have written in such a short time.

Now that you mention it, yes, I too have thought about writing (music) as similar to “dating” the piece. However, it felt like one of those relationships with a dangerous, unbalanced flame that you knew couldn’t last but might ruin you before it finally wrapped up. There seems to me the need for foolhardy bravery when composing something of substance, confronting the fear that when it all ends, I might be embarrassed to have let the relationship go for so long.